Poem: Vale

 

Vale

 

eldritch oak

and incense of sage,

the foothills so serene.

sweet silences

of sumac and tiger lily,

and the luscious clarkia cross,

and the ceanothus

imbued with dashes

of last moon’s rain--

and the deer weed and

the desert chia and chicory,

they too extol

a mountainous Earth

tumbled to fissured gardens,

hanging woundless

to conjure moist shoots.

 

a flint of scant vulture

sharpens the blue.

banquets of pollen

and bees down below

leaven the meadow with swells

of a golden zephyr.

and the mustard grass rustles,

and the willows

their frondy songs,

weaving shy notes 

with a stream's gurgles 

of clockless, giddy zest.

deeper still, spells

of unseen fossils, young green hopes--

the never-dead bones

of ravenous youth--

with immeasurable circles

and impossible trysts

play on.

 

 

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7/26/26 changed phrasing of a line

7/16/26 ... more mods... ... mods all day ... .. 

7/15/26... more mods ... not really my wheelhouse at all... 

7/14/26 ... removed a word

7/13 more mods ... fractious

7/12/26 mods ... not really my wheelhouse.. more mods throughout day

7/11/26 ... changed some phrasing